Three great institutions face the lake side by side here on the Museum Campus, spread out around your feet. The Field Museum, in its grand white classical hall, opened on this site in 1921, growing out of collections first gathered for the 1893 world's fair and endowed by department-store magnate Marshall Field. Inside waits Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, named for the fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson.
Just south stands the Shedd Aquarium, and beside it the Adler Planetarium, the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, opened in 1930. All three sit on land reclaimed from the lake, part of Daniel Burnham's vision of a continuous public lakefront. Walk toward the lakeside terrace, where the downtown skyline rises behind the museums in one of the city's most complete and famous views.